“Can a single student with $250 change the fate of the Gates Rubber factory?” So reads a headline over a fascinating article in Westword by Alan Prendergast about a 21-year-old CU senior who is seeking landmark designation for the hulking wreck along South Broadway — both to save it for posterity and because he and his friends apparently like to illegally explore the ruins.

The answer to the headline question is, of course,”no.” Eugene Elliott can’t change the fate of the Gates Rubber factory. He can only cause a momentary stir, force bureaucrats to spin their wheels, and waste the time of politicians and concerned neighborhood residents.

But shouldn’t that be enough to convince the city council that it’s time to change the landmark preservation ordinance? As an editorial in this newspaper explained last month, “People with no ownership interest in a particular building can seek landmark status for it at little cost and effort. They don’t have to notify the owners and they don’t even have to live in Denver.”

The editorial went on to endorse some ideas being proposed by Councilwoman Jeanne Robb — and they look even better after reading Prendergast’s piece.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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